Intellectual Property Tips

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There's More Than Money in your Ideas!!!
You may have some very valuable intellectual property rights in your ideas, trademarks, informational publications, and trade secrets that are worth protecting. The Federal Government recognizes the value in these intellectual property rights and has adopted various Federal Statutes to help you protect those rights.

Small Business and Independent Inventor Resources
The following information is provided as a service to the independent inventor and to small business enterprises which may have very creative product or process ideas but don't know what to do to bring them to the marketplace. The following list is by no means exhaustive. It is only a starting point for information gathering relating to marketing, manufacturing and financing sources for new product and process ideas.

Who owns the copyrights in the creative work that others have done for you?
Many companies use the services of graphic artists for designing marketing and informational brochures. If your company is commissioning others for creative artwork or text for brochures, advertising, manuals, anything, keep your copyrights in mind! Under Copyright law, the author of the work owns the copyright unless the work is one that is considered a work-made-for-hire.

Patent No., Patent Pending and False marking!
In the patent area, the terms Patent No. and Patent Pending have specific meanings which designate specific rights that the patent owner possesses. Under patent law, the owner of a patent may mark products that are the subject of an enforceable patent with the patent serial number. The purpose of marking the product is to put others on notice that the owner of the patent has certain protectable rights.

What's in a Name?
Your company's name is very important. Besides the name being the first thing customers see about you, it also represents an investment in signs, advertising and stationery. You don't want to find out later that your investment is lost because someone else already has your name or a confusingly similar name.

Filing a Disclosure Document in the US Patent & Trademark Office NO . .
Some inventors believe that filing a Disclosure Document in the US Patent and Trademark Office under its Document Disclosure Program (DDP) is sufficient to protect their rights in their invention. Contrary to this belief, the DDP does not provide patent protection nor does it reserve rights in the inventor's creation against independent creators or copiers.

Invention, Confidentiality and Patents: What you do could hurt you!
You have invented a new device or an improvement on an old device. It has potential world-wide applications. You're eager to bring it to market. After requesting proposals from various sources, you've found a manufacturer willing to make it at a reasonable cost. You've identified which trade channels are best to introduce your new product or improvement. Economically, the retail price is in a range acceptable to the consumer. So now you file a patent application to protect your rights. You've covered all the bases, right? Maybe not!

There's more than money in your ideas!!! (October '95)
You may have some very valuable intellectual property rights in your ideas, trademarks, informational publications, and trade secrets that are worth protecting. The Federal Government recognizes the value in these intellectual property rights and has adopted various Federal Statutes to help you protect those rights.

Who owns the copyrights in the creative work that others have done for you?
Many companies use the services of graphic artists for designing marketing and informational brochures. If your company is commissioning others for creative artwork or text for brochures, advertising, manuals, anything, keep your copyrights in mind! Under Copyright law, the author of the work owns the copyright unless the work is one that is considered a work-made-for-hire.

Global Patent Protection – Cost Effective and Achievable
Global patent protection is important because patents are territorial in nature. They only allow the patent owner a means of preventing infringement that occurs within the country or region granting the patent. A US patent, for instance, does not give its owner any rights in foreign countries. Yet, filing for a patent in every country is expensive

Trade Secret and Confidentiality
If you are in business, you should probably be thinking about your trade secrets. These are usually matters of information known only to you and your staff that are very valuable to your business. Included would be such things as your customer list, your price list, and your vendor list. You might also have standard operating procedures and training manuals that lay out the special methods and policies that give your business a competitive edge. You would not want any of these things to fall into the hands of your competitors. You should take steps to protect your valuable trade secrets.

Inventor's Notebook . . . a How-To Guide
The US Patent System is a first-to-invent system . . . thus, it is important that you inventive types keep accurate notebooks on your various inventions. Under the US system, notebooks are important evidence of invention when two or more people independently invent similar devices and each applies for a patent at about the same time. Where a US patent bestows certain exclusive property rights on an inventor, evidence of inventorship, i.e. a notebook, may be the deciding factor as to who is entitled to the patent. The following are rules to follow when keeping your inventor's notebook.

Whose Invention Is It Anyway - Employee's or Employer's?
When an employee's invention hits the jackpot, who owns it - the employee or the employer? Without an "Assignment of Inventions" Agreement, the employer may have significant rights to the patent, it may have "shop rights," or it may have no rights at all.

Your "Trade Secrets" Audit
What's so great about your business? Usually, it's a combination of people and knowledge. Trouble is, your people can walk out the door with your Company's knowledge. They might use that knowledge to compete against you. What can you do?

The Intellectual Property Audit - What Is It?
Intellectual property (patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets) can often be among your company's most valuable assets. Imagine discovering that your fiercest competitor has developed a product incorporating many of the unique features of your own top-selling product. Not a pleasant prospect! With increasing emphasis on the protection of various intangible property rights, it is important to consider an intellectual property "audit" to ensure that your legal rights are protected.

Trade Name vs. Trademark
Your business name (trade name) is the name used to identify your company or corporation. Your trademarks identify your goods or services. For example Ford® is the registered trade name of the business that sells cars under the federally-registered trademark Taurus®. Sometimes the name of the business is also the name of the product, e.g., Coca-Cola®.

Monitoring Your Trademark: "If You Snooze, You Lose"
Your trademarks can be among your most valuable assets. Names like Oreo®, Coca-Cola® and Cumberland Farms® have real staying power. The life expectancy and profitability of good trademarks can be virtually unlimited, but only if their owners maintain their exclusive rights and use their trademarks properly. Without diligent enforcement, those rights could be lost. That is what happened to Bayer and Dupont. They did not challenge the misuse of their marks. They lost the rights to aspirin and cellophane.

Choosing a Name
Choosing a name for your business or product sounds easy. It's not. The hard part is being creative. Most people want to use a name that describes their product or business. That can lead to difficulties. Often, a "merely descriptive" name is already taken. If the name is available, you might have trouble stopping others from using it. Merely descriptive trade names or trademarks ("marks") are hard to defend. You're not allowed to tie up the language with a monopoly on a generic word or a merely descriptive mark.

Protect Your Business Name Even Before You Begin Using It
Your soon-to-be business name (trade name) is the name you will use to identify your company or product. In this age of electronic commerce it is important that, as soon as you've decided on a trade name or trademark, you should move to protect it.

E-Commerce Business & Software Patents
Do you have a unique way of conducting business? Are you conducting business online or thinking about moving your business into the electronic age? Well, recent court rulings by the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals have opened the door for patent protection for business processes.

Global Patent Protection – Cost Effective and Achievable
Global patent protection is important because patents are territorial in nature. They only allow the patent owner a means of preventing infringement that occurs within the country or region granting the patent. A US patent, for instance, does not give its owner any rights in foreign countries. Yet, filing for a patent in every country is expensive.

Invention, Confidentiality and Patents: What you do could hurt you!
You have invented a new device or an improvement on an old device. It has potential world-wide applications. You're eager to bring it to market. After requesting proposals from various sources, you've found a manufacturer willing to make it at a reasonable cost. You've identified which trade channels are best to introduce your new product or improvement. Economically, the retail price is in a range acceptable to the consumer. So now you file a patent application to protect your rights. You've covered all the bases, right? Maybe not!

Copyright: What Is It?
Copyright is a form of protection provided to the authors of "original works of authorship," including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. This protection is available to both published and unpublished works.

Weblaw: Watch Out!
Metatags - Sweepstakes, Antitrust and Securities Law. - Linking.

Website Pitfalls: Copyright
Everybody's getting a website these days. Website designers are popping up like mushrooms. Their design services are often user-friendly and moderately priced. Depending on the nature of the site, however, there could be a problem. Who owns the content of the website?